Police are searching for two men who, in under a minute, robbed a Russian Post branch of 7.3 million rubles ($240,000), cash that was at first reported to be earmarked for doling out pensions and state benefits but that the postal service later declared was for daily operating activity.

Around 10 a.m. Friday at 44 Ulitsa Korneichuka in northeastern Moscow, masked men broke into the facility's back entrance with a crowbar, unleashed a canister of an as-yet unidentified toxic gas, then threatened the office's deputy director at gunpoint and made off with the cash, which had been packaged up in bags, Life News reported, citing preliminary information.

The robbery lasted no more than 20 seconds, the news agency reported. The assailants fled in a VAZ-2104.

Initial reports by Life News and Interfax identified the stolen cash as pension and state benefit money, but Gazeta.ru, citing a postal service spokesperson, reported later in the day that the money was "for the everyday operating activity of the branch." RIA-Novosti ran a similar line, stating that the money was "not for paying pensions but for operating activity."

The theft will not affect clients; all obligations to them will be fulfilled, a Russian Post spokesperson told Life News. "The office will resume operations shortly, following the conclusion of investigative measures."

"Police are taking all necessary steps to locate and detain the criminals," the police department said Friday in a statement. "The opening of a criminal case under Article 162 of the Criminal Code, 'armed robbery,' is being decided."

On Friday afternoon in downtown Moscow, robbers armed with a compressed-air gun shot a 51-year-old cash delivery man at close range in the stomach, stealing $320,000 from him outside an Esidbank branch, Life News reported, citing preliminary information from a police source.

The victim, identified as Ruslan B., was bringing bags of cash into the bank, located at 15 Ulitsa Chaplygina, near metro Chistiye Prudy.